baby James- a birth story {pt1}

At 36 weeks we found out baby James was breech (which stressed the heck out of me) so we scheduled an EVC procedure (which scared the heck out of me) for 38 weeks. We checked into the hospital knowing that this could end in an emergency c section, but were pleasantly surprised to find that baby had flipped head down on his own. Sweet relief! I wore a girdle after that in hopes that he would stay in position. 2 days later I went in for my weekly check up and he was still head down!! Our doctor suggested induction to try and get him out before he had the chance to turn breech again, and we decided that was the best decision! I was induced with Mia so that's really all I know, plus it was a relief knowing that my parents would be in town to take care of Mia! So the date was set for that Monday, September 28th (39 weeks 1 day)! This was the same weekend as the super moon and I won't lie, I was nervous that the full moon would send every woman in Phoenix into labor, except me, and they wouldn't have room to fit in our induction, ha ha! I called the hospital at 1:30am per doctor's orders to see if a bed was available, and luckily there was! Sweet relief! So off to the hospital we went!

After checking in around 2:30am, the nurse took me back to the delivery room and got me hooked up on the monitors and 3 pokes later I finally had my IV, ugh! (I have really great, "beautiful" according to the nurses, big veins but each time a nurse compliments them, they have the WORST time getting an IV in. If they don't mention my veins then we have no problems, ha!) My nurse finally checked me and found that I was still at a 3, "very thick" and she couldn't feel his head. I didn't let myself stress at first because she didn't push down on my belly (the way my doctor would) to push baby down further to get a good feel. She brought in a second nurse to check me and that nurse couldn't feel his head as well. I was starting to get nervous at this point, but I couldn't feel his head in the side of my ribs where he liked to hang out before. They finally brought in an ultrasound tech and that's when we discovered the bad news... baby boy was BREECH! His head was straight up in the middle of my ribs. At this point it was around 7am and I was exhausted and frustrated! The nurses left the room to call my doctor and I broke down and cried the ugly cry. I was so nervous about a c section, but also frustrated because the nurses mentioned that my doctor might send me home and have me come back another day (um, NO! Get this baby out now! I don't know why I let them stress me out because I knew my doctor would get this baby out one way or another that day! He was as ready as we were to meet our boy!)

Let Me See You Sparkle Photography

My nurse came back and told me that they were going to start my epidural now, since I planned to get one anyway, and my doctor was going to come try and flip the baby. If his vitals dropped then I would already be numbed and ready for an emergency c section. At this point I was definitely having contractions but only pressure, no pain. I was really nervous to get the epidural since I wasn't in any pain yet! The anesthesiologist was great and aside from the poke and burning from the numbing shot (I didn't feel that with Mia since I got it during a contraction) I was comfortable! He also assured me that he would be in the room if I ended up having a c section and that my doctor really was the best of the best. I trusted my doctor 100% but it's always nice to be reassured by other professionals ;) Once my epidural was finished the nurse had me lay flat on my back just as my doctor walked in the room to perform the version. Suddenly I felt really weird and asked for my ice chips. Eric handed them to me but I could barely lift the cup to my mouth. I sucked on some ice to see if that would help me feel better but I just felt my head spiraling downward (I don't know how else to explain it?) Suddenly my blood pressure cuff started taking my blood pressure non stop, Eric started rubbing my forehead and shaking my head a little bit telling me I was okay, to which I responded, "DON'T shake my head!" (Eric later told me he was trying to calm me down since I went super pale and didn't want me to stress out over my nurse who was freaking out, ha ha! Sweet husband trying to comfort me the WRONG way when I felt like crap!) My nurse started yelling for the anesthesiologist and I could tell that the room was filling up with people rushing around. I just laid there with my eyes closed, trying and willing myself to feel normal while I felt so "blah" as my head continued to spiral. I recall the nurse yelling out numbers (my blood pressure) and the last I recall was "60/30!!!" and I realized that within seconds of laying down my blood pressure tanked...

There's so much to James' birth story and lots of little details I don't ever want to forget, so even though it's annoying especially because we know I got a baby out of this in the end, there will have to be a second, maybe even third part to this story :) Hang in there with me!